Passat, Avensis or Mondeo? Import or Local?

Big Cheese

Hi,

I am looking to buy a new car in the next month or so. Looking for a 2011-2013 Passat, Avensis or Mondeo. We currently have a 02 Corolla, great car for what it is, never trouble with it. Keeping Corolla for wife to drive as only be local with,baby on the way.

New car be used for about 500km pw. So want a deisel 1.6-2.0

Currently have a 02 Corolla, that is why I considered Avensis, as Toyota seems very reliable.

I had a 2003 1.9tdi Passat 2 years ago. Loved the car, but was always problems with it. Servicing seemed very expensive compared to Corolla...even though it is not really comparable.

I only started looking at Mondeos recently. And this has been the one I am most interesred in. Seen some nice cars but all seem to be low spec to get a good price.

So, any input from anyone on my options.
I obviously want as high a spec as possible.
Budget 16k, 17k at a push.

I also would consider importing a car from UK. Seems much better value. Are there any issues anyone has experienced with bringing a car in (e.g. insuring it to drive to from ferry, warranty afterwards).

Cheers.

bazz26

Current Avensis doesn't do anything particularly great. They obviously produced it to a budget as the interior feels on the cheap side. Diesel engine is old at this stage, not very powerful compared to rivals but it's tried and tested. If your main priority is reliability then it ticks alot of boxes.

If looking at a Passat then the 2.0 TDi is much better than the 1.6 TDi. The 1.6 TDi is fine in a car the size and weight of a Golf but in the heavier Passat it's underpowered. Passats are not without their problems but the TDi engines these days are very punchy, refined and return good fuel economy.

The Mondeo kind of sits in between the above two reviews. It's very nice to drive but both the interior and exterior styling have aged quickly imo. Again the 1.6 TDCi is a little underwhelming and the 2.0 TDCi is more suited.

Others to look at would be:
Opel Insignia
Volvo S60
Skoda Superb
Hyundai i40

Noccy_Mondy

Bog spec mondeos are cheap, because they have nothing desirable as regards toys. You should be able to import a decent Zetec Business Edition/ Titanium/Titanium X fairly handy. Either of them has a fair decent spec. You would be looking at a 12 possibly 13 reg. 2.0 would be the engine to target, has 140bhp, 163 in the titanium specs.

Bear in mind that importing is quite difficult at the minute now with the current exchange rate. Revenue seem to be having a great time of it too, looking for daft money to register many cars!

murphyebass

bazz26 wrote: »

Current Avensis doesn't do anything particularly great. They obviously produced it to a budget as the interior feels on the cheap side. Diesel engine is old at this stage, not very powerful compared to rivals but it's tried and tested. If your main priority is reliability then it ticks alot of boxes.

If looking at a Passat then the 2.0 TDi is much better than the 1.6 TDi. The 1.6 TDi is fine in a car the size and weight of a Golf but in the heavier Passat it's underpowered. Passats are not without their problems but the TDi engines these days are very punchy, refined and return good fuel economy.

The Mondeo kind of sits in between the above two reviews. It's very nice to drive but both the interior and exterior styling have aged quickly imo. Again the 1.6 TDCi is a little underwhelming and the 2.0 TDCi is more suited.

Others to look at would be:
Opel Insignia
Volvo S60
Skoda Superb
Hyundai i40

I'd agree with hat but I'd add on the Mazda 6.

I've driving a 2010 model 2.2ltr diesel for the past year and have found it nice to drive.

People say Mazdas have bad Diesel engines which seems to be true about the 2ltr model but the 2.2ltr seems reliable once your doing the miles.

Anyway outside of that they're spec'd really well in comparison to a Passat for example.

Also should be cheapish now with the be model out.